After the opening prayer and hymn, Tami sat back down in the stiff, wooden pew. As one of the elders read from the scriptures, she studied her church bulletin. She felt as if every eye in the pews was upon her. She had heard the whispering that morning. Word of her wayward ways had crept and crawled through the church's grapevine.

Between Tami and their mother, Shelley sat sandwiched. The twelve year old twisted her long blonde hair around her finger and then untwirled it. She did this three more times before their mother hissed, "Quit fidgeting!"

Shelley unwound her hair and laced her fingers together in her lap. She sat straighter in the pew, but then she crossed her legs at the knee and began tapping her foot, which her mother stilled with a hand to the ankle.

The Bible was closed, and the elder stepped down. He glanced judgmentally at Tami as he walked to his own pew behind her, or at least Tami imagined he did.

The Reverend Hayes assumed the pulpit. Slowly, he sipped a glass of water and then set it back down. He cleared his throat. In that deep, confident voice he reserved for emphasizing particular points, usually not until toward the end of his sermons, he suddenly announced, "Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy."

Tami's mother let go of Shelley's ankle and stared, slightly agape, at her husband in the pulpit.

"That's what God says, through the Psalmist." Reverend Hayes looked about the congregation. "And the author of Proverbs tells us that an evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. He tells us that A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter."

He gripped the edges of the pulpit. "And do you think that's all, brothers and sisters?" He shook his head. "That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Titus tells us to speak evil of no one, to be gentle. Timothy tells us to avoid irreverent babble, because it won't help people to better themselves, but will lead them into more and more ungodliness."

Shelley kept glancing at Tami. Their mother, shocked, stared straight ahead.

"And what does our Lord's brother James say?" The Reverend opened his Bible with a smack. "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, that person's religion is worthless. Worthless!" The thin pages of his Bible rustled loudly as he flipped them. "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who judges his brother judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge." More rustling. "The tongue is a small part of the body, and see how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell."

His usually light gray eyes were as dark as storm clouds as he looked out at the congregation, deliberately picked up his water glass, and slowly sipped. He set it down and asked, "Shall I go on? I have a hundred more." Silence from the pews. "Well, I suppose I won't read every one of them this morning. Suffice it to say- idle gossip does nothing to benefit the body. We are all sinners, all of us, and we have all fallen short of the glory of God, and we would all do well to remember that, wouldn't we, brothers and sisters?"

Tami feared the silence that followed her father's words.

"Wouldn't we?" Reverend Hayes repeated.

Tami closed her eyes as the weight of the silence fell heavily on her soul. But then, from three pews behind her, came one lone, loud, "Amen!"

Instinctively she turned, and she saw there a boy she recognized, faintly, from the junior varsity football team. He was only a sophomore, like her, but they had put him in once during the last varsity game in November, after both the first and second string quarterback had injured themselves. She didn't share any classes with him, and he wasn't at any of the parties she'd gone to (which had mostly been with the artsy, angsty crowd). She couldn't quite remember his name, though she recognized the elderly couple with whom he was sitting as regulars.

Several other Amens followed the chorus the boy had begun.

A slender thread of relief began to unwind in Tami's tense body.

[*]

Tami and her mother always stood at the door to the church after the service with Reverend Hayes. For some reason, perhaps her tendency to talk too much, Shelley was excused from this family duty. Today, Tami smiled more broadly than usual at one particular parishioner, the young man who had called out the first Amen. "I think I know you from school," she said as he shook her father's hand.

"Yeah, you look familiar," he said. "Tanya, right?"

"Tami," she said.

"I'm Mo McArnold. I'm visiting with my grandparents. I usually go to First Baptist with my mother."

"Well, young Mr. McArnold," the Reverend Hayes said, beaming at him, "We would love to see you in our pews again."

[*]

When they got into the station wagon after church, and Reverend Hayes started the car, Tami's mother opened her mouth and began to speak. "I – "

"- I don't want to hear it, Linda."

Her mother closed her mouth. She waited until they were out of the church parking lot to speak again. "I was just going to say, Edward, that I was impressed by your sermon today."

Tami's father turned his eyes from the road. He looked at his wife as though he wasn't sure whether or not to believe her.